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Advent Simplicity: How can this be?



Week 1: Advent Devotional


Read Luke 1:5-24 & 1:26-38


In our two passages for this week, Zechariah and Mary receive unexpected news. Gushing with joy and expectancy, Gabriel announces separately to Zechariah and Mary that each will be parents in the coming months. Both Mary and Zechariah are bewildered. For, Zechariah and Elizabeth are far past childbearing years and Mary is a virgin.


Zechariah asks, “How can I know this?”


Like “the wicked and adulterous generation” that follows him, Zechariah asks for a sign to prove that God’s word is trustworthy (Matthew 16:4). Gabriel swiftly reminds him that he is one sent by God to tell him this good news. Isn’t that a sign enough? Then, ironically, the father of the Messiah’s herald is silenced until his son is born.


Mary asks, “How can this be?”


She considers Gabriel’s message and wonders aloud how she can conceive as a virgin. How is this humanly possible? In contrast, Gabriel answers Mary’s utterly practical question about how she will conceive. He even asks her to consider her cousin Elizabeth and her miraculous pregnancy.


“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

If simplicity is a matter of recognizing and surrendering to our human limitations and bending our whole selves to God, then we have a powerful and humble example in Mary.


While Zechariah’s question reveals a hint of arrogance or mistrust, Mary’s question is wonderfully human. It is within her knowledge, though not her experience, to know how conception works. It was not wrong for her to question Gabriel on the technicalities of this good news. Even when his answer opens up another 10,000 questions, her final response reveals her heart and mind to be clothed in humility and a deep trust that God will do what He says.


Simplicity in our mind is not reserved for the simple-minded or the less scientific, less stressed people in ancient times. Simplicity is available and necessary for us whether we have a Ph.D. in physics or we’re a teenager just trying to make it through third period English. This simplicity allows us to consider the complexities of our everyday lives, to question what we know, contribute where we can, and ultimately trust that all things are possible for God.


Tomorrow we’ll explore one reason why simplicity may not feel possible for you. Then, we’ll learn one practice to recognize our mental limits and make room for thoughts that matter.


What human questions do you have for God? Are you tempted to believe that your “human” questions reveal a breach in your trust in God? How does this passage oppose that view?



Thank you for visiting my blog! I hope you are refreshed and inspired. I pray your imagination is awakened as you engaged with Scripture through my essays, poems, and ramblings. As a Christian in the Anglican tradition, I hope to share the awesome scope of the Gospel, the beauty of the liturgy, and my growing interest in theology.

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